This invention is directed to an improvement in a document file folder and a process of forming the same. The improvement includes forming crimped ends on the metallic fastening member utilized in the document file folder for holding documents in the file folder.
Businesses rely extensively on document file folders for retaining documents in a neat and orderly manner. Document file folders have been produced which include metal fasteners which have their central section connected to the support material of the file folder and are flexible such that their arms or tabs can be bent upward in a parallel relationship so as to accept documents which are hole-punched with the tabs then being bent downwardly towards the file folder to retain the documents thereon.
It is very easy to add documents to the top of the stack of documents retained in the file folder of the type described in the previous paragraph. One simply bends the arms of the metal fastener upward, slides the new documents onto the top of the existing stack, and then folds the metal fasteners downward.
It is much more difficult, however, to insert a document in the middle of the stack of documents, or to remove a document from the middle of the stack of documents. To do this, all the overlying documents must be removed from the metal fasteners. When the stack of documents are removed from the metal fasteners, it is very easy to mis-align the documents such that the paper holes are no longer in alignment. This makes re-insertion of the documents back onto the metal fasteners very difficult. This is especially true with file folders which are utilized to hold a variety of sizes of documents. The small documents are very easily mis-aligned, and as such, sometimes when inserting the stack of documents back onto the metal fasteners, these documents, in fact, do not get connected to the metal fasteners and can be dropped from the file when the file is moved.
One system to circumvent the problems with regard to addition and removal of documents to and from a file folder is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,911. The fasteners described in that patent are hollow plastic tubes which are flatter in the middle and heat welded to the file and are utilized in conjunction with a stiff keeper through which the tubes are intertwined for retaining documents on the file. A U-shaped bar having male ends is utilized in conjunction with the two other components. The male ends are slipped into the female ends of the fastener tubes for removal and insertion of documents within the stack of documents in the file.
In many situations such as hospitals, courts, and the like where files must be retained for long periods of time, there can be hundreds of thousands of individual files which must be retained. It is expensive to provide this document storage space. The use of a keeper, as is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,911 in the preceding paragraph, results in excess space taken up by each and every file simply to retain the documents therein, without even considering removal or insertion of documents within each individual file. The keepers of U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,911 themselves are approximately 3/32 inch thick, however, when the tubular file fasteners are wound through these keepers, even without a single paper being held in the file, the keeper is elevated to at least 3/8 inch. In a single file this may not be critical, but when thousands of files, and even hundreds of thousands of files must be stored for long periods of time, the space taken up by the individual fasteners of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,911, when multipled together, can result in tens, hundreds, or even thousands of feet of expensive file space.